In many scholastic and academic environments, teachers (including lecturers, educators, trainers, teachers assistants and professors, all hereinafter collectively referred to as “teachers”) prepare assignments, reports, projects, homework and tests (collectively “student work product”) in order to gauge and advance student learning. In many fields, teachers use open-ended questions in which students may answer in free-text format, mathematical format, programming code format or in similar forms. In order to review, grade and provide valuable feedback to the student, teachers spend large amounts of time reading, reviewing and commenting on the students' answers to the assignment or tests, in order to assist the students' learning processes. Reviewing of student work product may be particularly burdensome in large classrooms in universities, colleges, high schools, professional schools, corporate training and in online teaching environments.
In order to save time reviewing students' answers, teachers may prepare multiple choice tests that can be easily checked manually or using a computer. However, multiple choice tests have many disadvantages. In many fields, the multiple choice format cannot accurately capture students' methods of obtaining the answer. Answers to multiple choice questions are also easier for students to copy or cheat from their peers. In addition, many multiple choice questions are required to properly assess a student's proficiency in a given subject.